Last Sunday and Monday, Volgograd, Russia was struck twice on successive days. Suicide bombings targeted its main train station and a crowded trolly bus during morning rush hour. At least 34 died. Dozens more were injured.

Vladimir Putin broke with tradition. He delivered two New Year's eve speeches. One was in Kamchatka, Chukotka and Magadan region.

Khabarovsk was next. He addressed victims of Far East flooding. Around 40,000 people were affected. Many lost everything.

He directed Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee to increase security nationwide. He stressed doing it in Volgograd and surrounding areas.

He vowed to battle terrorists. To their "total annihilation," he said. "In the past year, we have faced problems and serious challenges, including the inhuman terror attacks in Volgograd and unprecedented disasters in the Far East."

"Dear friends, we bow our heads in memory of the victims of these terrible attacks." He got security tightened across Russia.

He met with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. They discussed "all questions connected with providing medical help, financial assistance, and other forms of support for the injured and families of those killed in the" Volgograd terror attacks.

He got other Russian ministries involved. They include its Federal Security Service. It's responsible for internal and border security, as well as counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and surveillance.

"How can you make war on terrorism if war is terrorism?" How can you "respond to terrorism with" far greater acts of the same kind?

"Governments (doing so) are terrorists on an enormously large scale." Individual terrorist acts pale by comparison. They're way short of all-out war.

Merriam-Webster calls terrorism "the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal."

US Code defines "international terrorism." It includes activities involving:

(A) "violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;"

(B) are intended to:

(i) "intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States..."

The US Army Operational Concept for Terrorism (TRADOC Pamphlet No. 525-37, 1984) shortens the above definition.

It calls it "the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature." It's done "through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear."

The USA Patriot Act created the crime of domestic terrorism. Section 802 calls it an act "dangerous to human life."

It does so if intended to:

"(i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping."